This invention relates to luminaires. More particularly, this invention relates to a luminaire housing in which a luminaire""s control components are enclosed and held in place without using securing hardware.
Luminaires that include housings for lighting control components are known in the prior art. One type of luminaire utilizes a high intensity discharge (xe2x80x9cHIDxe2x80x9d) light source that is regulated by control components which may include a transformer alone or in combination with other components such as capacitors, ignitors, or other such equipment. These control components may be mounted within the luminaire""s housing, or separate from the luminaire in a dedicated housing. For outdoor use, the control components are usually fitted inside a weatherproof enclosure, and for indoor use, the control components are often enclosed in the housing for safety purposes. If not integral within the luminaire""s housing itself, the control components may sit outboard of the luminaire, attached to, nearby or remote from the luminaire which they control.
Traditionally, a luminaire""s control components have been secured within their housing by screws, rivets, or other fasteners in combination with flanges or clamps integral with the components, and/or metal straps cinched around the components and affixed to the housing with screws. These traditional approaches are simple and worry free until a component needs to be replaced. Malfunctioned control components must be removed from their securing hardware within their housing, and new components must be inserted, often requiring new hardware to secure them properly, in order to prolong the useful life of the housing.
In the time consuming task of fitting a new control component with new hardware in an old luminaire that is still in use, one type of traditional luminaire makes use of a separate housing to enclose each separate component. This poses its own set of problems when a user is forced to repair the light. In this luminaire configuration, unless, without opening each component""s housing, one can determine exactly which component has malfunctioned, the repair time to perform the job of replacing a single burned out component will be increased by time wasted exploring each separate component housing to find the problem.
Another type of traditional luminaire known in the art uses a single housing for multiple components. This type of housing usually has a constant height throughout its interior. In this approach, each of the control components is secured with traditional screws and metal straps to the housing""s interior surface.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a luminaire with a housing which is contoured to suit the heights of the control components fitted therein, that housing having at least two upwardly opening pockets whose heights are substantially equal to the heights of the control components positioned therein in combination with a cover which cinches the components into their respective pockets, thereby eliminating the need for metal straps, screws, or other hardware to secure components into place.
It is a further objective of the present invention to eliminate all unnecessary component securing fasteners, thereby reducing the manufacturing time and lowering the cost of the luminaire.
These and other objectives of the invention are achieved by providing a luminaire comprised of an upper housing which includes at least two upwardly opening control component pockets. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a lower housing has an upwardly extending lamp socket which fits into a recess in the upper housing. The lower housing encloses the luminaire""s lamp. The lower and upper housings are aligned so that the upper housing and the lower housing cinch together with an adjustable fastener, e.g., a bolt and nut assembly. This allows the upper and lower housings to sandwich between them a canopy to which the luminaire is mounted with the lower housing extending beneath that canopy to provide light beneath the canopy.
The upper housing has a cover which is secured to the upper housing""s base. The cover cinches traditional metal control components into their respective pockets, thus eliminating the need for internal hardware to fasten the components into place. Traditional luminaire control components for HID light sources, such as ballasts and transformers having exposed wire coil windings or oval metal-can oil-filled capacitors with wiring terminals, are required by electrical codes to be secured in place with maintained spacings between these electrical parts. The present invention specifically addresses and solves the code requirements for these traditional control components. By cinching these control components into their respective pockets with an easily removable housing cover, the need for further securing hardware is eliminated, thereby reducing costs of manufacturing as well as the cost of maintenance and hardware needed to service malfunctioned luminaires.
Newer luminaire control components for HID light sources that do not need to be clamped in place, but only contained in a housing, also may be used in conjunction with the present invention. Control components such as cylindrical plastic dry-film capacitors or ignitors may not have spacing requirements like their traditional metal counterparts. The height of the plural pockets in the present invention are tailored to specifically suit the larger metal ballasts, capacitors and ignitors, but since the more modern plastic control components are smaller and are only required to be captured in a component housing, they also may be retained, though not clamped tightly, in the housing cavities without the use of screws, straps or other hardware fittings.
Other advantages of the invention will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill upon review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.